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The VIPER team continues to push forward with the build of the flight rover that\u2019ll go to the surface of the Moon. As of this writing, all of VIPER\u2019s flight instruments are installed, and the rover is more than 80% built! This is a major accomplishment and shows the great progress being made by the dedicated VIPER team, who are excited to see the rover coming together.<\/p>\n
What comes next \u2013 the confirmational tests of the rover \u2013 will strengthen our confidence in the rover\u2019s ability to survive launch, landing, and the challenging environment of the lunar South Pole.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For example, as we assemble and install various subsystems onto the rover, we also perform channelization tests. Channelization tests let us confirm that through our design and build of the rover system \u2013 from piece-parts to cable harnesses and connectors, and mechanical installation activities, and even through avionics software \u2013 the connections all work. Now, you might think, \u201cOf course what we installed should work!\u201d but it\u2019s important to remember how complicated these space systems are (and planetary rover systems in particular).\u00a0<\/p>\n
An example of an upcoming channelization test for VIPER is to command the flight vehicle\u2019s high gain antenna to move in a particular way: Does it actually move in the correct direction and to the correct position? Sometimes we will perform even more complex tests, like sending a command to the NIRVSS instrument to take an image: Is the image taken successful? Is the field of view of the image correct? Did the image make its way into the rover\u2019s avionics for downlink? We make these determinations now because we don\u2019t want to discover any issues later in the assembly flow that could result in us needing to perform some disassembly to correct matters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So we test as we go, to decrease risk later when we\u2019re performing whole-rover environmental tests. This way if the rover doesn\u2019t work as expected after one of VIPER\u2019s environmental tests, we know it once worked fine, and that can help us more quickly problem solve what might have gone wrong.<\/p>\n
The pace in which we\u2019ve been working through the build and subsystem checkouts has been blistering lately, and we\u2019ve had a good run of successes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Go VIPER!<\/p>\n
\u2013 Dan Andrews, VIPER Project Manager<\/p>\n<\/div>\n